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The Republicans have been criticizing The Affordable Care Act for the last 7 years. They have been promising to repeal and replace it since it became law. They have had that chance for the last several months, and they haven’t been able to. Protests around the country have mostly prevented that from happening. The most puzzling thing to me is that they have had years to come up with an alternative plan, and they didn’t have one ready to go when they had the chance.

The House barely passed a version of the Republican’s Health Care law. The Senate is having trouble passing their version of Health Care. The underlying problem in all of this is that Republicans have almost always been against social programs. At the time the Affordable Care Act was being debated, many Republicans denied there was even a problem with Health Care.

We have had problems with our health care system for some time. I personally think we need to move away from private insurance. Health insurance companies have been abusing the system. Before the Affordable Care Act insurance companies could deny people treatment or coverage for no reason. No one’s life should be determined by whether or not the insurance company wants to pay for your treatment.

I hesitate to call either of the Republicans bills, “Health Care Reform.” It uses the money it cuts from Medicaid to help wealthy Americans in the form of a tax cut. This isn’t a health care bill, it’s the Republicans finding another way to give a massive tax cut for the wealthy. Seven years ago the Republicans complained that the Affordable Care Act was done in secret and was rushed to a vote. The Republicans in Congress wrote this bill behind closed doors and were trying to rush it through before the 4th of July.

If the Republicans are truly genuine about fixing the problems with our broken health care system, they would include Democrats in the writing of a new health care bill. There are problems with the Affordable Care Act, but I am not confident the Republicans want to do anything to fix it. The biggest problem with the Affordable Care Act is that it is improving a broken system, but doesn’t change it to where it needs to be.

Ever since Liberals introduced social programs, Republicans have been skeptical or opposed them. FDR’s New Deal Programs were opposed by Republicans. Republicans have either tried to oppose or weaken Medicare and Medicaid. No Republicans voted for the final version of the Affordable Care Act. Liberals have almost always supported social programs that benefit society. If the Republicans have almost always been against social programs, why should we trust them to fix the problems on their own?